


One Kiss

by lilcrabcrab



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 4 + 1 structure, 5+ 1 structure, Almost Kiss, Fluff, Idols, Kissing, M/M, Sexual Tension, but only a little bit I swear, except I didn't need another one, fluff?, so it's 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 02:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21111239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilcrabcrab/pseuds/lilcrabcrab
Summary: In which there are 4 times when Haechan almost kisses Taeil and 1 time where they do.





	One Kiss

The stage lights twisted and flashed around them, ghosting over Haechan’s skin and casting shifting shadows across Taeil’s face. Music flowed through every inch of Haechan’s body, deep bass rumbling in the soles of his feet and honey-sweet notes spilling from his throat. This was the stage he knew so well, and he could feel all the eyes of the audience on him like phantom touches. He was captivating: he knew this for a fact.

But he himself was captivated.

Taeil stood across from him, red and black outfit bringing out everything already so beautiful about him. His voice dripped from his lips like diamonds, sparkling and powerful. The lyrics that felt so normal in his own mouth sounded new and exciting coming from Taeil’s, even if he had heard it a million times before in practice. It was the stage lights, he thought, the way that they turned the whole place into another dimension. “It’s natural that I’m scared,” they sang, hearts beating rapidly in their chests. “Maybe I’ll fall deeper into you.”

They came close during the chorus, just as they had done every time before. It had never been spoken about or decided, but they fell into the rhythm of this charade a few shows in and there was some sort of unsaid agreement to continue. Haechan leant in, and Taeil leant in closer - ever closer than every time before - with eyes half-lidded and plush lips impossibly close, Haechan’s hand coming up to trace the outline of the side of his face. An insistent voice in Haechan’s head asked whether this was the day that they would go that extra step, whether tonight they would come close enough to touch.

Of course not. After what felt like an eternity of Taeil only inches away from him, the line that he was singing ended. Haechan fell back, his head leaning onto Doyoung’s shoulder and the mindless feeling of performing flooding back.

To think, to believe, that it was all an act...

\---

In the soft blandness of the hotel room, the events of any stage felt unreal in the way that they were perhaps meant to feel. To consider getting so close to Taeil in the static, normal world that they had to eventually return to was absurd - the stage was a dream for both them and the fans, and real life, for everyone, was just real life. As if it were muscle memory, Haechan stood alone in his room and traced out the path that his hand would make (had made, so many times already); coming close, and then drawing back again.

It wasn’t the same. Caught in trying to remember the feeling, he startled at a knock on the door, looking around himself in embarrassment before going to open it.

“Hey,” Taeil said, hands stuffed into his pockets and hair slightly messy, slightly wet. “Doing anything right now?”

“No? Do you-” Haechan paused, considering whether his roommate Jaehyun would be back anytime soon. “Wanna hang out here?”

Taeil grinned, and walked past him to flop onto his bed. His eyes roamed around the room, not looking at Haechan but also not ignoring him. “Come here,” he said, flopping over to one side of the bed and producing his phone from his pocket. “I want to show you something.”

It became evident that there wasn’t anything really specific that Taeil wanted to show him, but that suited Haechan just fine. Taeil’s arm had come to encircle his shoulders, and Haechan’s head rested on Taeil’s chest. They started talking about the other members and how they did on stage, mumbling appreciation and funny anecdotes as Haechan traced lazy circles down Taeil’s side.

“And you’re fantastic, you know?” Taeil was saying, and Haechan squirmed a bit at the compliment. “Whenever you perform you just seem so real… even more real than real life itself. Like nothing else is true.”

“Like when?” With sudden confidence, Haechan lifted himself up a little to look Taeil in the eye. “Like,” he brought his hand to cup the side of Taeil’s face lightly, “when I do this?”

For a while, Taeil just looked at him. Then, a soft smile teased at his lips, and he puckered them just gently. Too shocked to react, Haechan didn’t move - and then the moment was over, and Taeil was laughing and telling him what a tease he was, and Haechan was lying back down onto his chest, giggling to cover up his blush.

He woke up the next morning in Taeil’s arms, heart jumping at the memory.

\---

The ground shifted a little unsettlingly beneath Haechan but it didn’t bother him much. What was far more concerning was the man in front of him: eyes like they have moons and stars in them and hair lifting slightly in an imaginary wind. Haechan thought that he would drown if he looked at him for too long, so he stepped closer.

Taeil’s voice seemed to vibrate from the walls around him (or were they even walls? Mountains, perhaps? Universes?), and although Haechan heard words being spoken, he didn’t understand a single one of them. Taeil’s eyes were stars - he could see icy fire and dangerous darkness in them.

His lips; they were roses and lightning and everything unreachable.

Some part of Haechan’s heart reached out, and it found something in the in between. It felt like a question, and Haechan didn’t know the answer.

“Taeil-hyung,” he said, and somehow knew that Taeil had already understood all the words that would go after it. “Hyung.”

There were hands in his hair and fingers curling around his locks and a rose (not a rose) in front of him. The voice was still rumbling around him, comforting and large. Overwhelming, but not. “Hyung, please,” he whispered.

It took an eternity for him to lean in, and Haechan held his breath for every second of it. Only when he felt Taeil’s soft exhale hit his lips did he let himself breathe. There was less than a centimetre of distance, less than half-

Soft, average light streamed through his curtains, and the world shuddered and stopped shifting. Haechan turned to hug a pillow to his chest, eyes wide open and awake, and mind desperately trying to finish what it had started.

He had been less than half a centimetre away.

\---

There was no real reason for Taeil to be in the recording studio with him as he recorded. Haechan knew what he was doing, and if he needed help he could just tell him from the outside. There was no valid reason that, as he sang an unmistakeably powerful love song, Taeil had to be there, sitting in the corner, watching him with eyes that set his skin on fire in the most strangely enjoyable way.

The rest of the members had mostly finished and gone home, and only a producer was still there with them as the two main vocalists recorded their trickiest lines. Taeil had insisted that he should stay in the room - there was no point waiting outside if he was about to go next anyways, he had reasoned, and they could swap out when they got tired, as they were wont to do with the most finicky parts. Who was Haechan to protest that?

“I'll show you, just hold my hand and follow me up into the sky,” he crooned, eyes closed as he tried to embody the feeling of the song. When he opened his eyes, Taeil was standing up, looking at him from the other side of the microphone. Haechan’s breath caught in his throat, eyes flickering between his eyes and his lips. He shouldn’t have been thinking like this, but it was late, and this song-

Haechan wasn’t sure if he imagined it, but there was a pregnant pause as they stared at each other, spending altogether too long watching each others’ lips. Taeil stepped up a little, ducking to the side of the microphone - Haechan’s lips parted slightly, the rest of his body frozen in place.

“That was really nice,” Taeil said, smiling brightly and patting him on the shoulder softly (holding him there a little longer than necessary), and then all of a sudden he was stepping a little further out and Haechan was stumbling backwards and into the seat on the side of the room. “Take a break now, mm? I’ll record for a bit.”

“Y-yes, thanks,” he managed to stutter out, and as he watched the man sing, he couldn’t help but stare fondly.

Perhaps nothing else could seem more like angels and heaven.

\---

They sat next to each other on the car to the morning’s schedules. The car had three seats in the back, but no one else was in the back with them that day - Taeyong had something special to do, so he wasn’t travelling with the rest of the members. It was just Haechan and Taeil. Back of the car. Early morning half-darkness and tired eyes with minds just starting to buzz alive from coffee.

It was too early for words. Haechan leaned his head on Taeil’s shoulder, eyes not really focussing on anything. Fuzzy shadows moved across the back of the seat in front of him, gliding over it like silk. Taeil’s hand was resting on his thigh, a warm and comfortable weight.

Then, his hand was on Haechan’s chin, lifting it up softly to make him look at him. His gaze was gentle and open; a tender smile curved the edges of his mouth. Slowly, but without hesitation, he brought his lips to Haechan’s, slotting them together easily. Haechan’s mind short-circuited at the contact, uncertain how to react, and a little surprised, Taeil pulled back.

“Sorry, are you sure, do you want to-”

Before he could finish the sentence, Haechan looped his arms around his neck and kissed him back, properly. This was to make up for every time he had hoped but hadn’t received - this was the one kiss that answered all the ones left unanswered.

“Finally,” he breathed, when they broke apart. Taeil only smiled and kissed him again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is incredibly cliche and unnecessarily horny-coded but I had fun writing it so I hope you liked reading it - leave a comment if you have reactions to yell about :D Thanks for checking it out.


End file.
